CAT 2020 Slot 1 — VARC Question 23
The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
For years, movies and television series like Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) paint an unrealistic picture of the “science of voices.” In the 1994 movie Clear and Present Danger an expert listens to a brief recorded utterance and declares that the speaker is “Cuban, aged 35 to 45, educated in the […] eastern United States.” The recording is then fed to a supercomputer that matches the voice to that of a suspect, concluding that the probability of correct identification is 90%. This sequence sums up a good number of misimpressions about forensic phonetics, which have led to errors in reallife justice. Indeed, that movie scene exemplifies the so-called “CSI effect”—the phenomenon in which judges hold unrealistic expectations of the capabilities of forensic science.
1. Although voice recognition is often presented as evidence in legal cases, its scientific basis can be shaky.
2. Movies and televisions have led to the belief that the use of forensic phonetics in legal investigations is robust and fool proof.
3. Voice recognition as used in many movies to identify criminals has been used to identify criminals in real life also.
4. Voice recognition has started to feature prominently in crime-scene intelligence investigations because of movies and television series.
Answer & solution
Answer: 2
Easy
Identify the passage’s thesis and keep both halves of it; drop options that miss a key element. Core idea: movies and TV (the “CSI effect”) create an unrealistic, exaggerated impression that forensic phonetics / voice science is robust and reliable — which it is not.
Option 1. “Although voice recognition is often presented as evidence … its scientific basis can be shaky.” It captures the “shaky science” half but omits the driving cause — movies and television and the unrealistic expectations they breed. Incomplete.
Option 2 — best. “Movies and televisions have led to the belief that the use of forensic phonetics in legal investigations is robust and foolproof.” This names the cause (movies/TV) and the false belief (robust, foolproof) the passage is built around — precisely the CSI-effect point. Essence intact.
Option 3. “Voice recognition as used in many movies … has been used to identify criminals in real life also.” A distortion — the passage warns the movie depiction is unrealistic, not that it is replicated in real life. Reverses the point.
Option 4. “Voice recognition has started to feature prominently in … investigations because of movies and television.” Adds an unsupported claim (that media boosted real adoption) and omits the unrealistic-expectations theme. Off-target.
Best summary: Option 2. Key in 2.